The previous section indicated that new PBI modules are uploaded to the PBI build server so that they can be built and tested. This section describes the two ways you can assist in testing PBIs.

Test PBIs Waiting for Approval

If you wish to help test a PBI before it has been approved, go to the build server[1] as shown in Figure 11.6a.

Figure 11.6a: Viewing the Status of PBIs on the Build Server

Find the name of the PBI you wish to test in the "Module" column and click its hyperlink. You can then download the file with the .pbi extension. Once downloaded, run pbi_add /path/to/pbi to install the PBI. If you find any problems with the PBI, send an email to the PBI-dev[2] mailing list describing how to recreate the problem. Include the text of any error messages you receive.

Investigate or Fix a Failed Build

You can try to resolve PBI modules that have a "Build Status" of "FAILED". If you click on the name of a failed module, you can download the build.log for that module. This file is in ASCII text so it can be viewed in any text editor.

If the file ends in a .bz2 extension, it has been compressed. To uncompress the file, type bunzip2 -k build.log.bz2. Or, you can read the compressed file directly using the command bzcat build.log.bz2. This command will scroll down to the end, where the error occurred. Use bzcat build.log.bz2 | more if you prefer to scroll through the file.

If you think you know the cause of the problem after reading the error messages, you can review the PBI's module by clicking its "svn" hyperlink. If you decide to download a file to edit it, look for the "Plain Text" link in the "Download in other formats" section at the bottom of the page.

If you make an edit to correct the problem, send the modified file (or a diff) to the PBI-dev[2] mailing list so the changes can be uploaded to the build server.